Patent Issued for Emergency incident detection, response, and mitigation using autonomous drones (USPTO 11288936): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 APR 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Hayes, Howard (Glencoe, IL, US), Kumar, Surender (Palatine, IL, US), Slusar, Mark V. (Chicago, IL, US), filed on August 12, 2020, was published online on March 29, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11288936 is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Aspects of the disclosure relate to detecting and responding to emergency conditions that occur in buildings, homes, warehouses, manufacturing plants, retail stores, and other premises. Existing systems for responding to emergency conditions often rely on human detection of an emergency condition and/or human communication of details regarding the emergency condition to first responders (e.g., police or fire departments, medical, or any other emergency response provider). This manual detection and communication process may introduce errors and delay an effective response. Additionally, existing systems for responding to emergency conditions often rely on waiting for emergency responders to arrive, during which time an emergency condition may worsen. Such delays can lead to significant property damage, endanger safety and lives of people, and increase repair and insurance costs.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Aspects of the disclosure provide effective and efficient technical solutions that help to more accurately detect emergency conditions, relay information about the emergency conditions to reviewers and/or responders for analysis, determine a response plan, and execute the response plan to mitigate the emergency condition both before and after first responders arrive.

“In accordance with one or more embodiments, a computing platform may be configured to detect an emergency condition at a premises; dispatch one or more autonomous drones to a location associated with the emergency condition; receive, from the one or more autonomous drones, sensor data associated with the emergency condition; plan, based on the sensor data, an evacuation route for safely evacuating the premises; and transmit an instruction that causes the one or more autonomous drones to indicate, to one or more persons in a vicinity of the emergency condition, the evacuation route.

“In some aspects, the computing platform may further be configured to detect, based on the sensor data, one or more safe areas in the premises, wherein the evacuation route passes through at least one of the one or more safe areas. In some cases, the emergency condition is a fire, and the computing platform may detect the one or more safe areas based on one or more of temperature data captured by a temperature sensor onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones, smoke data captured by a smoke detector onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones, and image data captured by a camera onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones. In some cases, the emergency condition comprises a hazardous material, and the computing platform may detect the one or more safe areas based on data captured by a hazardous material sensor onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones.

“In some cases, the evacuation route passes through a locked door, and the computing platform may be configured to transmit an instruction to a premises automation system that causes the locked door to unlock.

“In some embodiments, the computing platform may be configured to determine a location of one or more first responders; determine a location of a person in need of assistance; plan a route from the one or more first responders to the person in need of assistance; and transmit an instruction that causes the one or more autonomous drones to indicate, to the one or more first responders, the route to the person in need of assistance.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: at a computing platform comprising at least one processor, at least one memory, and at least one communication interface: storing, by the at least one processor, a plurality of templates indicating response actions for responding to different emergency conditions; receiving, by the at least one processor, via the at least one communication interface, from one or more autonomous drones, sensor data associated with a premises; detecting, by the at least one processor, based on the sensor data, an emergency condition at a premises; determining, by the at least one processor, based on the sensor data used to detect the emergency condition, a location associated with the emergency condition; dispatching, by the at least one processor, the one or more autonomous drones to the location associated with the emergency condition; selecting, by the at least one processor, based on the emergency condition that is detected, one of the stored plurality of templates indicating specific response actions for responding to the emergency condition; generating, by the at least one processor, using the selected one of the plurality of templates, a response plan identifying an evacuation route for safely evacuating the premises where the emergency condition is present; and transmitting, by the at least one processor, via the at least one communication interface, an instruction that causes the one or more autonomous drones to indicate, to one or more persons in a vicinity of the emergency condition, the evacuation route.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the response plan using the selected one of the plurality of templates is based on one or more of: a location of the emergency condition, a type of the emergency condition, a severity of the emergency condition, or presence of people nearby the emergency condition.

“3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the at least one processor, types of drones that are available at a premises automation system; determining, by the at least one processor, devices that are connected to the premises automation system; and generating, by the at least one processor, the response plan identifying the evacuation route for safely evacuating the premises where the emergency condition is present based on the types of drones that are available or the devices that are connected to the premises automation system.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the emergency condition is a fire and the types of drones available at the premises automation system include a drone with fire extinguisher equipment, the method further comprising dispatching the drone with the fire extinguisher equipment to the location associated with the emergency condition.

“5. The method of claim 3, wherein the devices connected to the premises automation system include an intercom system, the method further comprising playing an evacuation message a location associated with the emergency condition.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting, by the at least one processor, based on the sensor data, one or more safe areas in the premises, wherein the evacuation route passes through at least one of the one or more safe areas.

“7. The method of claim 6, wherein the emergency condition is a fire, wherein the detecting of the one or more safe areas is based on one or more of temperature data captured by a temperature sensor onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones, smoke data captured by a smoke detector onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones, and image data captured by a camera onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones.

“8. The method of claim 6, wherein the emergency condition comprises a hazardous material, wherein the detecting of the one or more safe areas is based on data captured by a hazardous material sensor onboard one of the one or more autonomous drones.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the evacuation route passes through a locked door, the method further comprising transmitting an instruction to a premises automation system that causes the locked door to unlock.

“10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the at least one processor, a location of one or more first responders; determining, by the at least one processor, a location of a person in need of assistance; generating, by the at least one processor, a response plan identifying a route from the location of the one or more first responders to the location of the person in need of assistance; and transmitting, by the at least one processor, via the at least one communication interface, an instruction that causes the one or more autonomous drones to indicate, to the one or more first responders, the route to the person in need of assistance.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting of the emergency condition at the premises comprises: receiving second sensor data from one or more sensors at the premises; transmitting the second sensor data to a computing device associated with a reviewer; and receiving an indication of the emergency condition from the computing device associated with the reviewer.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein the second sensor data is captured by one or more of a security system and the one or more autonomous drones.

“13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining, by the at least one processor, the location associated with the emergency condition based on the second sensor data and a map of the premises.

“14. A computing platform comprising: at least one processor; a communication interface communicatively coupled to the at least one processor; and memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing platform to: store a plurality of templates indicating response actions for responding to associated emergency conditions; receive, from one or more autonomous drones, via the communication interface, sensor data associated with a premises; detect, based on the sensor data, an emergency condition at a premises; determine, based on the sensor data used to detect the emergency condition, a location associated with the emergency condition; dispatch the one or more autonomous drones to the location associated with the emergency condition; select, based on the emergency condition that is detected, one of the stored plurality of templates indicating specific response actions for responding to the emergency condition; generate, using the selected one of the plurality of templates, a response plan identifying an evacuation route for safely evacuating the premises where the emergency condition is present; and transmit, via the communication interface, an instruction that causes the one or more autonomous drones to indicate, to one or more persons in a vicinity of the emergency condition, the evacuation route.

“15. The computing platform of claim 14, wherein generating the response plan using the selected one of the plurality of templates is based on one or more of: a location of the emergency condition, a type of the emergency condition, a severity of the emergency condition, or presence of people nearby the emergency condition.

“16. The computing platform of claim 14, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing platform to: determine types of drones that are available at a premises automation system; determine devices that are connected to the premises automation system; and generate the response plan identifying the evacuation route for safely evacuating the premises where the emergency condition is present based on the types of drones that are available or the devices that are connected to the premises automation system.

“17. The computing platform of claim 14, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing platform to detect, based on the sensor data, one or more safe areas in the premises, wherein the evacuation route passes through at least one of the one or more safe areas.

“18. The computing platform of claim 14, wherein the evacuation route passes through a locked door, and wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing platform to transmit an instruction to a premises automation system that causes the locked door to unlock.

“19. The computing platform of claim 14, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing platform to: determine a location of one or more first responders; determine a location of a person in need of assistance; generate a plan indicating a route from the one or more first responders to the person in need of assistance; and transmit, via the communication interface, an instruction that causes the one or more autonomous drones to indicate, to the one or more first responders, the route to the person in need of assistance.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For additional information on this patent, see: Hayes, Howard. Emergency incident detection, response, and mitigation using autonomous drones. U.S. Patent Number 11288936, filed August 12, 2020, and published online on March 29, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11288936.PN.&OS=PN/11288936RS=PN/11288936

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